NEW DELHI: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the largest Indian IT firm by sales, on Thursday reported a 4.48 per cent year-on-year (yoy) rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 6,904 crore for the March quarter.
The number topped Rs 6,812.5 crore profit estimate by analysts in an ETNow poll.
The IT services, consulting and business solutions firm had reported Rs 6,608 crore profit in the same quarter last year. It had reported negative profit growth in the previous three quarters of the financial year.
On a sequential basis, the IT major reported 5.71 per cent growth in profit.
Consolidated net sales for the quarter rose 8.2 per cent to Rs 32,075 crore compared with Rs 29,642 crore in the year-ago quarter. The company had reported a sales growth of 3.93 per cent in October-December and 4.29 per cent in July-September.
The board has approved a bonus issue of equity shares in 1: 1 ratio. The outsourcing firm has also announced a final dividend of Rs 29 per share.
"Strong demand in digital across all verticals and large transformational deal wins made this one of our best fourth quarters in recent years. The strong exit allows us to start the new fiscal on a confident note," said CEO and MD Rajesh Gopinathan.
The Tata Group company said all industry verticals — with the exception of BFSI — grew above the company average, with three verticals growing in double digits. Growth was led by the energy and utilities vertical (up 33.7 per cent), travel and hospitality (25.4 per cent) and life sciences and healthcare (12.6 per cent).
"Six of our industry verticals grew above the company overage in FY18, four of them growing in double digits. Strong deal wins and a good pipeline position us very well in the new fiscal," said Ganapathv Subramaniam, COO and Executive Director.
The software majors total headcount stood at 3,94,998 at the end of the March quarter on a consolidated basis. The IT Services attrition rate (last 12 months) edged 0.1 per cent lower to 11 per cent while the total attrition rate (including BPS) fell to 11.8 per cent.
Volume growth for the quarter stood at 2 per cent, TCS said.
The company said its operating cash flow at 121.70 per cent of profit for the fourth quarter was its highest ever. It noted that 23.8 per cent of its revenue came from the digital vertical, which grew 42.8 per cent on an annual basis. Greater adoption of digital technologies by customers resulted in several large, multipractice integrated deal wins.
For the year, the company added three clients in $100 million plus category, 13 in $50 million slab, 17 in $20 million and 40 in $10 million slots.
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